How This Flyin' Hawaiian is Learning, Living & Loving the Rural Life

Author: diaryofawannabefarmgirl

Ok, let’s be honest, when I find a cute product or program that’s good for me, my family and my home then I’ve got to take a look further and find out more. And that’s how my love for Grove Collaborative started! Have you heard of it?

Grove Collaborative is an online company that does the work for you in searching for all natural products. From cleaning to personal care and more, they have quite the selection of suggested products! Some are common household brands like Mrs. Meyers, Method and others. While some are special Grove Collaborative branded products.

I just got my first box in and LOVE everything that came in it! I took advantage of their spend $20 and get FOUR free products offer. The best part was I got to choose all the products so there was no disappointment and I knew exactly what would be coming. Seriously, for $20 I got seven products that together are worth more than $20! I’m all about a good deal and this was one of them! Check out all the cuteness in my knock off reveal video (idea borrowed from the 10,000 Fab Fit Fun videos out right now- haha!) that I made for my Grove Collaborative box!

If you want to give them a try, you’ll get $10 towards your order by using my link below! Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Morning Everyone! What a weekend… The weather here has been typical PNW weather for this time of year. Rainy, windy and cold! Things are looking up though…It’s sunny as I write this and predicting to be sunny all week! I love the cold fall mornings when they aren’t wet!

Jace and I spent much of our time at the farm this weekend. The girls are in the barn which means feeding twice a day and scraping/cleaning up as well. The fall and winter weather makes for messy times at the farm. Last year I got out of chores due to my recovering back surgery, but that’s not the case this year! Seven calves and ten cows makes for a lot of pooper scooping–Haha! Jace loves it when I come to help clean because I am so particular about it.

Aside from feeding and chores, we found ourselves getting two steers ready for halter breaking. The two kids that will be using them as project steers will be by in a couple of weeks to pick them up so we needed to get them started. Jace has really improved his halter breaking skills over the past couple of years. I remember the first time he showed me how to do it…. It didn’t look fun at all! In fact, it looked scary for this island girl! These days he really takes his time. It’s so important because it can actually be dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing! Within one afternoon, about an hour or so, he earned the trust of these little guys and was able to get halters on both of them with ease. No fighting and bucking around. So, what’s the secret? Time and patience!

With Jace, he really likes to get the steers to know and trust him. He pens them together and just spends some time in with them while feeding them grain. Cattle don’t like to be pet on their face, so he scratches their sides and backs until they settle a bit. Next, he puts the lead from the rope halter on their back or neck and just lets it lay there for several minutes. That gets them comfortable with having something on or around them.

Then, when the time is right and moving swiftly he gets the halter on in one quick motion. He makes it looks so easy. I haven’t gotten the guts yet to try it, but instead I helped by petting them from right outside the pen. After the halter is on, we just let it be on them for awhile. We don’t tie them up or lead them at all. That will come in the next few days.

One thing that’s important is not to let them step on their lead while they are just getting used to the halter. That teaches them to keep their head down and in the show world, that’s the opposite of what you want.

I can’t wait to get back to the farm in the coming days to work more with these two boys. They made great progress in one afternoon so I’m excited to start training them and leading them around. The real test will come when we try to start leading them around. I’m sure they’ll want to stay put. But, with time and patience, it’ll all come together. Stay tuned for more pictures of that!

It’s definitely feeling like fall around here. The air has been nice and crisp in the mornings with a layer of fog over the grass and the days are getting noticeably shorter. It’s staying darker later in the morning and getting darker earlier in the evening. The leaves are slowly starting to change color and soon the herd will start eating in the barn. Jace has been busy keeping them out by feeding in the pasture so he can get concrete work done and the barn ready for them to come back to feed inside through the fall and winter. Aside from everything else that indicates the change in the season, everything Pumpkin Spice is back and the fall decor has got me feelin’ all warm and fuzzy inside. Haha! This weekend I met my sweet friend Veronica and her new baby girl and we took a trip to a vintage fall sale in Creswell. It was DARLING and full of vintage decor. Can you see now that my warm and fuzzy level is almost off the charts?! I wanted to buy up everything and add to my fall decor collection for inside the house. Of course, I refrained though! Instead I settled for a new living room candle I was in need of. I chose a hand crafted, by a local artisan, soy candle in Autumn Pear scent. It smells divine people! Love it!! (Ps… my inside fall decor is not happening this year as we are reconstructing our fireplace wall right now. It’s basically a construction zone in my living room– aahhh!)

Today Jace and I took a trip to (of course) our favorite store, Wilco! I decided I wanted to decorate our front door step to add to the fall season at our house. We picked out some beautiful large mums, some sweet pumpkins and a handful of small gourds. I’m not normally into the corn stalk and Halloween decor (I know, I’m boring, hehe!) so I didn’t go that route. Of course, I needed my mums to match and I wanted them to feel really fall-ish so I chose yellow and orange ones. Ya’ll, (I’ve caught myself saying that twice now, must be the season!) I’m not kidding when I say they are huge! Super nice, full and fresh. Definitely some of the nicer mums I’ve seen around town.

The only thing missing I’m realizing as I type this is a cute wreath for the front door. Maybe I’ll get creative and make one. I’ll update if I do! Also thinking that putting the mums in tin cans or small wooden barrels could be really cute and dress it up a little too! It would be Joanna Gaines approved for sure!

Anyhow friends, I hope you get some inspiration if you need it on some fall decor from this post. The few minutes of decorating already has me pumped for the holidays– my favorite time of year! Here are other pages to check out if you need some new fall decor ideas, or check out what I did. Super simple and super easy and hopefully a little warm and inviting for this season.

If you’re new to Diary Of A Wannabe Farm Girl or it’s just your first time meeting me through my words on the interweb, welcome! And, if you’re a newbie, you probably don’t know that I’m from Hawaii. What does that have to do with this post, you ask? Well– everything! You see, I am always a Kona Girl first and an Oregon Girl second. It means that sometimes I get to go home to Hawaii or my sweet parents get to come up to the great Pacific Northwest to visit! And this post has to do with the latter.

You see, mom and dad are in town right now for their yearly visit and it has been such a blast having them for the past week. I’m already sad that their trip is half way over and we still have a week more with them! Whenever they come, I love that they want to explore, get out and do things and have a good time.

This past weekend, we ventured out of the valley over to Sun River. All of us, the WHOLE family– Jace and I, mom and dad, sis and my brother in law and my handsome little nephews. We spent the past several days there and let me tell you– I needed it! I didn’t realize it, but I really did! Completely (sort of) unplugging from all responsibilities and electronics and getting to be with family, no plans in place– just wherever time and our hearts took us provided for some spontaneous times. It was so relaxing and went by way too fast. But, as always, time flies when you’re having fun, right?!

We started our weekend by mom treating sis and I to manis and pedis. I may be a “wannabe farm girl,” but I LOVE a good pampering! Any trip that starts with a girls day like that is welcome in my book! After that, we headed over the mountain, conquered the grocery store together to shop for our weekend and settled into our cozy little abode for the next few days with tasty burgers and movies. The next day we went on a three mile walk through Sun River, checked out the Village and later that evening played some put-put golf and bumper cars. The golfing was a little chincy, but Toby LOVED it! He was one happy boy! We also ventured to La Pine State Park and stumbled across a super serene area on the river. We laughed and caught up and just enjoyed each others company as we talked about crashing a wedding that was going on in the park— of course we were only kidding and didn’t really do that!

The next day sis and my brother in law celebrated their anniversary, so we had the boys. We took Jace’s advice to go for a drive and ended up in good ole’ Fort Rock. Have you been to Fort Rock? It’s a teeny tiny town south east of Bend. It felt like it was in the middle of nowhere– and it was! Desert scenery with sage brush stretched for miles as ground squirrels hurried across the road. I had not idea what to expect, but when we got there it was such a neat area– so remote, so quiet and so simple. The town was small and the ONE person we encountered was welcoming. We stumbled upon the Fort Rock Homestead Museum. My goodness– it was cool! It made me appreciate all that we have today. All the luxuries of heat (and AC!), a comfy bed, a regular flushing toilet and a washing machine that doesn’t require me to do more then add the clothes and soap. The boys were so well behaved as we weaved our way through each building. We were literally the last customers before they closed up the museum for the fall and winter seasons. How’s that for good timing?! Watching Toby’s eyes look like they were going to pop out of his head when we explained to him how things were back in the “old days” was pretty comical. I’m not sure he understood completely, but nonetheless, the teacher in me came out to teach him. Once a teacher, always a teacher, right?!

Before we knew it, our trip was coming to an end. I surely wasn’t ready to head back over the mountain and jump back into reality. But, nonetheless, we had to. Back to the smokey air we came and back to work I went today. I wish I could freeze the next week and this past weekend. Saying goodbye to mom and dad after their trips are always hard but I seem to make it through the “see you next year” each time. I am already looking forward to their next trip and our next adventure! We’ll see where it will take us!

Besides that, one of my fondest memories of this past trip is little Parker, my youngest nephew and watching his fun little personality come to life. That little boy has latched onto me like a little ‘opihi! Look up what an ‘opihi is if you don’t know! I must admit, it was hilarious every time he would yell, “Auunnttyyyy Niiikkkiiii” or every time he asked for more blueberries– that boy can eat! I like to think I am one of his best friends and I’ll hang on to those “Aunty Nikki” cries forever. So sweet and so innocent. My nephews truly making being an Aunty so fun and I had a blast spending the whole weekend with them too!

I hope you all have gotten to spend time with the ones you love too, made unforgettable memories and lived in the moment as this summer comes to an end. I am so grateful to have gotten more fun in during these last few bits of summer. I know I’ve said it before, but oh my goodness, this has been the best summer in a long time!

And just like that, as quick as the snap of your fingers, summer is on it’s way out. While it went by way too fast (as always!) and was so much fun and packed full, I have to say I am starting to get the itch for fall. Cooler weather is on the horizon and Jace’s favorite…. Beaver Football! A clear sign summer is almost over is when it is Oregon State Fair time, and that’s where we spent much of our weekend.

We kicked off the weekend at the Oregon Ag Link Barn Dance fundraiser. What a fun filled evening with friends! There was good music, courtesy of Ben Rue (Silverton’s very own celebrity!), good dancing (although I didn’t really partake this year!) and just overall good people. It was a hot night, but spending time with friends getting to raise funds for great educational causes like the Adopt A Farmer program make bearing the heat all worth it.

As many of you know, I work in the ag industry. Part of my “work” tasks this weekend included helping at the poultry stage at the Oregon State Fair. We put on a presentation all about raising backyard chickens. It makes me still want to get some every time we even talk about chickens (It’s the same every time we talk about pigs too!). When it comes to backyard chickens, I’ve already done my pre-work like making sure I know how many we are allowed to have in our little town (which by the way, there is no limit! Weird, right?!). Maybe this fall, or next spring…. We shall see!

And, of course, the main reason Jace loves to go to the State Fair– the Hereford show! After my work was done I jetted over to the show ring just in time to catch the end of the heifer show and then the bull show. It’s a good reminder to be at these shows to see where we need to head in terms of show stock.

After that, we of course indulged in our favorite fair food (that makes 4x’s this summer already– ahhhh!), walked the vendor buildings (to cool off! haha!) and then back to the barns we went. Jace reviewed with me what qualities are good, what to look for and things that are not desirable in show cattle. We practiced as we walked the aisles of the barn. It was so fun! So addicting! I wanted to keep giving reasons for every single one we walked past. Feeling pretty confident, I decided to take my skills to the Limousin show that was going on. Whispering over to Jace, he confirmed or shook his head “no” when he agreed or disagreed with my comments as we went down the lineup. It was so fun and while I felt pretty good about myself in that moment (haha!) there’s no way I could be a judge! It’s so hard and I’d need yeaaarrrsss of practice!

At the Oregon State Fair Hereford Show

Oregon State Fair Hereford Show

Oregon State Fair Hereford Show

Brittany and I at the Limousin Show

Oregon State Fair Limousin Show

Oregon State Fair Hereford Show

As always, it was another jam packed, super fun, hot summer weekend that went by way too fast. As we move into fall I’m excited about football season (well, tailgating really… If you know me, you know I have never paid attention to an entire football game!),pumpkin spice drinks, the holidays, the cool weather, and everything else that comes with the season. Even through all the stressors of life, summer has been a welcomed distraction and so good to us this year! Until next time, summer!

It’s been a busy summer for sure, one that has included a few concerts, bbq’s, quick trips to here and there, county fairs and livestock auctions. While they are all so much fun, I have to say one of my favorites are always the county fairs and the junior livestock auctions with those fairs. Why you ask? Well first– the FOOD! Fair food every once in a while is much needed, obviously. I mean, when else in the year is it ok to scarf down fried apple slices slathered in caramel, sugar and whipped cream? Yuummm!!

Walking the barns, checking all the animals out.

More than the delicious fair food, I always enjoy walking the barns with my guy. Yes, I know, I’m very much a city girl and whether it’s in my bow tie flats or boots, I really love walking through the barns! Every year I probably ask him the same questions or have him point out to me what makes an animal look more finished than another. All stuff that you’d think I should know already. But, he doesn’t mind or get embarrassed that I have to ask again. He’s always happy to answer my sometimes silly questions! We always run into about 20 people that Jace knows and we get to catch up. It really can be like a reunion at the barns and I love it! Besides that, the biggest reason why we love walking the barns is because we like to see what all the hardworking students have spent the past several months working on. Each year I learn a little bit more as I watch the steer show or the hog show, whether its a market show or showmanship. One of these days (hopefully by the time we have kids!) I’ll get it all and it will all click! I also like walking with my nephews through the barns. This past weekend at Benton Co. Fair Toby told me about wanting to show a steer when he’s old enough. Thattaaa guuyyyy! Uncle J will be so proud! Haha!

The time that the students spent with their project animals accumulates to countless hours. The blood, sweat, tears and love they put into them is considerable. Showing an animal, learning all about it, training it and learning to feed properly is not easy. So, to see them get in a show ring, many of them for the first time, lead their animal around while answering showmanship questions and place accordingly, it brings a feeling of accomplishment for them. As with anything or like any sport, some are disappointed and know what they need to do to improve for the next year while others are relishing in their big win. It’s such a great, fulfilling experience for kids to show an animal. The things they learn and the responsibility they have at such a young age is admirable. I can see why for some it is not easy to sell their animal at the culminating junior livestock auction. The bond they’ve created comes to an end, but the memories made over the past several months hold strong. Then, onto the next project animal that will steal their heart once more.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

While we don’t have our own kids that are participating in showing an animal at county fair or a jackpot show, we did have a few students showing some of the animals we bred this year. As much as it can be nerve wracking for the students, it can also be nerve wracking for us! As someone who has bred an animal, you want the student who’s showing them to learn, do the best they can and to do well.

With us being so new to working with 4H and FFA Students on project animals it was a good learning year for us. While we had three students show animals we (Jace) bred, there is so much to learn, tweak and change for the coming years. I just had a nice talk with a brilliant gal who is well versed in show cattle today who reminded me that doing well in anything, even raising cattle takes practice. It takes figuring your program out, trying new things and deciding what’s best for your herd. Such a great thing to take away from this county fair season as we look to the future on how to make improvements. Just like the students who know what they need to do to prepare for next year, so do we. Jace and I hope to build what we have going into something bigger than what we have now. And with that will come frustration, excitement, lots of work and taking some risks. The students work so hard for that end goal and so will we. But most importantly, we want to be there to help the students. Jace has always been passionate about spreading his love of livestock and this is one avenue where we will be able to help them and give back to ag youth.

Like those students who do this for the love of showin’, we will do this for the love of livestock, giving back and helping to guide those kids. We hope to see you at fair next year!

Let’s be honest… the past couple of years I have totally sucked at cooking dinner every night or meal prepping my lunches for work. I’ve fallen off the meal prep train and gone down hill with planning what’s for dinner each night. I mean, my entire day at work revolves around planning and executing, why would I want to do that every single night after a long day of work? Jk, I’m a planner by nature, I just have been lazy at home to say the least. But, the bad habits of eating out or not eating at all have finally gotten to me. This weekend I said, ‘Enough is enough!’ With things always being so busy plus add a tired girl after work on top of that, I knew that if I didn’t take a few hours on the weekend to plan then I’d continue to fail.

So, here’s what I did. First I decided I wanted to prep just my lunches. Then something inside of me said, ‘Psshhh. Why not just prep the entire day for a week!’ Yes, breakfast, lunch AND dinner. So off I went turning to Pinterest of course for meal prep ideas. Before you know it, I was headed to the grocery store and then back home to start cooking and filling my little Tupperware containers.

Here’s what I settled on:

Breakfast- I saw this blog about a lady who wanted to meal prep a hearty breakfast that reminded her of her time growing up on their ranch. It consisted of scrambled eggs and roasted red potatoes with peppers. I have to admit, I wasn’t sure about the scrambled eggs, but I figured since it worked for her I’d give it a try. Plus we already had a bag of baby red potatoes so it was a win! I had my first taste of my meal prepped breakfast this morning and it tasted just fine! And I’m still full from it! Here’s the recipe if you want to give it a try! I added a couple sausage links to mine.

Lunch- I made a knock off Starbucks protein box. It has: cucumber slices, a hard boiled egg, a couple pieces of cheese, some grapes and celery sticks with a little peanut butter and raisins. Super easy!

Dinner- This is where we always fail. Jace hates cooking and if I fail to plan ahead on dinner then it’s really easy to cave (and unhealthy) and get takeout. Knowing that Jace likely wouldn’t want to eat chicken every night, I compromised and made up a huge meatloaf. Half the nights we’ll have meatloaf, rice and steamed broccoli. For the other nights, I grilled up some awesome tasting chicken breast to go over a bed of greens for salad. We had this last night and it was so good! Here’s the simple chicken recipe if you want to try it!

So, for this week, I am feeing like super woman. Three hours of being in the kitchen over the weekend will make my life so much easier this week and will keep us on track and eating at home!

Today was a productive day… at home! I relished in every moment of it! See the blog tomorrow for the low down on what I finally got back into today! I’m pretty proud of myself!

Maybe you’re thinking… ‘Productive day at home?? What about the farm??’ Even though the cows and farm life take a ton of time, I am not the one that is there Every. Single. Day. But, Jace is! Like many of you, I work a normal day job, keep up around our house and also like to have somewhat of a social life (even if it’s just a small sliver sized social life!) which is why I am not at the farm everyday. However, any chance I get, I’m there and I love helping Jace (unless it’s scooping out poop all day from the barns, like in the winter, yuuucckk!).

While it was a productive day at home, that didn’t stop us from checkin’ cows over at the farm. Although they’re out to pasture and we don’t need to feed them in the barn, we still need to check on them. You know, count ’em, make sure no one escaped and keep an eye on them for anything that could potentially pop up.

Here is a short video I threw together of our time with the boys and girls tonight!

Have you ever had to do a job with someone where it gets tense? Everyone’s walking around on edge, partially dreading the task at hand and you just know there might be a “bleepty, bleep, bleep” every other sentence while trying to get the job done? Now that I’ve painted that picture, can you guess the two times that seem to fit this description at the farm? You guessed it! Puttin’ up hay and workin’ cows! I’m not sure why these two jobs always seem to be so stressful when starting out, but for some reason they are. Probably because if anything goes wrong it could be a very big deal. This weekend we worked cattle and I got to be the assistant. I filled syringes, loaded the ear tagger and helped sort. We only had a couple of minor incidents– including the one where a couple of the ornery girls scratched their backs on a gate and completely pulled it up off the hinge and knocked it over. What the ??? Seriously, girls, get it together!

Working cattle meant pushing all of them through the chute– mother cows, heifers and the calves. One by one they each got a shot of Vira Shield and Clostridium. Both are common vaccines to aid in prevention of diseases and illnesses in healthy cows. My job was to prepare an alcohol drenched cotton ball and the syringes each time for Jace, who would then inject them subcutaneously in their neck. That just means they were injected under the skin. Did you like my doctor lingo there? Just call me “Dr. Anderson”– haha!

Fly tag going in

Once finished I quickly handed over the ear tagger to my father in law who inserted a Dominator fly tag into each ear. This is an insecticide tag that is used to help control flies. As the animal moves it’s head backward to scratch, it spreads the insecticide onto it’s back. Now, this is much later than usual to get a fly control program going, but the main thing is we got it done before the flies got too bad.

It’s so important to have a fly control program in place to help with limiting the spread of pink eye. While in the chute being tagged, we checked their eyes. We looked to make sure they weren’t droopy, cloudy or irritated– all signs of pink eye. This year we are in good shape! Flies can travel very far distances and can spread pink eye from herd to herd and multiple animals in a short amount of time resulting in swelling around their eyes to the point they cannot see. If left untreated there are other more severe effects too. The goal is to get a fly program in place just before the warm season starts. Of course with warmer temperatures comes more flies.

The last thing we did was to spread a fly powder over the back of the animal and it’s face. We rubbed the powder down with a brush to help it get further down into the hair as added protection. In addition to the fly tags and powder, we also have fly bags hanging out in the pasture that the cows can rub up against which releases powder onto them. As you can see there are a few things we do to help combat against flies. For the most part, it seems to work until cooler weather comes and they are all much more comfortable again.

Fly tag going in

Fly powder going on

Fly powder going on

How cute is this little gal?

After a couple pairs were moved through the chute (a pair is a mama and her calf), we sorted out a few more. One by one they went through until we were all finished, leaping out of the chute as happy as ever to be done. It was so nice to have a few of us working them. Things moved quickly and efficiently– aside from the sorting part. In case you’re wondering, that’s probably the hardest part along with getting them into the chute which is really what makes things tense. It’s so important to try to remain calm, though. Animals can pick up on that stuff and it only makes it harder to work them. When you’re working with an animal this large you definitely want to make sure they’re calm that’s for sure!

Going back to the pasture

You could tell they were all ready to get back to the pasture we brought them off of to be worked. They balled like little babies begging to go back and eat. We moved them up and over the driveway back to the pasture and they were all happy cows again! The next time we’ll move them through the chute is in the fall when the calves have to be worked again. Until then… the ladies and gents are settled back into their favorite pasture for the time being and Jace is very happy we were able to safely and quickly move them all through.

*Side note- I don’t recommend trying to take pictures while working cows especially if you have a job in the process… Haha…

Holy smokes you guys! It has been nearly two weeks since I’ve sat down and focused on writing a new post. I’m not joking when I say it has literally been driving me CRAY-CRAY! You see, when I started Diary of A Wannabe Farm Girl I had all these plans. Plans of what I thought I wanted to write about and plans of how often I thought I should post (which was twice a week!). Well, guess what? Some of those plans have gone out the door. Sometimes LIFE happens and gets in the way of your plans. And that’s just what’s been going on over here on the home front. Don’t get me wrong, I’m so happy to finally have a summer back where I can be out and about doing all the summer things we like to do– going to the lake, catching a few summer concerts, county fairs, helping at the livestock auctions and just spending time outside with friends. BUT, I’m so thankful I have a morning off to just stay home, clean the house and put laundry away. I’ll spare you the description of how high my “laundry put away pile” was on the guest bed as I’m sure you can all relate somewhat, right?!?! In the midst of all the crazy busy-ness these past two weeks, Jace and I finally made it into that new restaurant that I fell completely in love with because of their logo, Bo & Vine. If you missed out on the Bovine post, check it out here. As I sit here and share with you my official review of Bo & Vine I’m also going to enjoy this super sweet cup of 100% Hawaiian Kona Coffee from my new favorite spot at home in Kona, Kona Coffee & Tea Company. Check them out! Their coffee is AMAZING and if you ever get over to Kona, be sure to stop in because their shop is beautiful! Now, onto Bo & Vine… Here goes….

My Betsy Jo Mug– How cute is it?!?!

Dark Roast 100% Kona Coffee– YUM!!

I went into Bo & Vine with really high expectations. I’ve loved following their posts on IG. The pictures make me want to jump into my computer screen, rip the food out and gobble it down. Ok, not really, but seriously, that’s how good they look! I was surprised when we walked in to find that it was not a sit down and order type of restaurant. They have nice signage right when you enter directing you to order on one end or pick up take out orders on the other. We proceeded to the menus to see what we wanted to order. Instantly I could tell it was not the type of place Jace would appreciate. His wrinkled nose said it loud and clear- haha!

The first thing I noticed was how busy it was! There were literally only a couple of stools at one of their window bars open. Even their outside tables were taken. It was clearly a hopping place. We looked over the menu and I was impressed. Lots of options! I was even more impressed and excited to try a few of their sauces. Jace placed our order for us while I saved us a couple of seats. We both decided to go with the traditional Bo & Vine– the basic burger which included their Bo & Vine sauce (their take on the traditional Thousand Island). We weren’t feeling like being too risky so we stuck with the “you can’t go wrong with this” burger.

Food menu & sauce menu

It was busy!

Aside from the food, they had a nice assortment of local craft beers and wines. We ordered a couple of Mamba’s from one of our local favorites, Gilgamesh. We were surprised to see that it wasn’t on tap and instead poured out of a can. It didn’t come out as cold, but it still worked.

We waited only about 10 minutes for our food and it quickly came out for us to pick up at the counter. The sauces we opted to try were the Bo & Vine, Steak, Sweet Buffalo and Mustard. They were all tasty, the sweet buffalo being a wee bit spicy. But overall, good tasting!

We didn’t waste any time getting into our burgers. They were huge! I was definitely impressed with their size. Now, when it comes to burgers for me, I absolutely hate when the bread falls apart. It gets messy and everything just goes down hill from there. It literally makes me not want to keep eating and messing with it. Well, of course, with my luck, the bread fell apart. It didn’t for Jace though, so I’m guessing mine was just a fluke– or maybe it was just me?!?! Will it stop me from going back? Probably not. The burgers actually were not anything over the top impressive, which was shocking to me. However, they were still good. Maybe it was because we ordered the “Plain Jane” burger? Not sure…

Bo & Vine Burger

Better than the burger was the fries. Oh. My. God. YOU GUYS!! The fries were heavenly! You could choose from hand cut fries or tater tots. Obviously we went with the fries. I’m a crispy french fry kind of girl with just the right amount of salt– not too much and not too little. And, I’m happy to report that Bo & Vine’s fries fulfilled my taste buds for sure. When my burger went south on me I went straight to the fries dipping them in all the sauces and what not.

We were so hungry we scarfed our food down as if we hadn’t eaten in days and then took a minute or two to take in the actual restaurant. A super cute mural incorporating different mountains and landmarks for Oregon and Salem line one entire wall. Subway tile covers the back of their ordering area and all the wood tables and mix of wood/industrial decor was super fitting. It’s definitely a cute, hip place. And, a space that is taking in the new rustic/chic/industrial decor theme that is highly popular right now.

For me, it wasn’t a terrible experience by any means, but it also didn’t live up to the expectations I had walking in. It was still delightful and good and we would definitely try it out again if we are in the downtown area and in the mood for a burger and….. of course, those FRIES! Haha!

I’m interested to see what you guys think! Check it out and leave a comment here and share what you thought!

We’re off to the Linn Co. Junior Livestock Auction today, one that Jace has enjoyed helping at as a ring man for the past several years. Hope ya’ll are doing something fun today too!